JOHN BAIZLEY OF BARONESS, THE ARTIST

John Baizley is quite the talented visual artist in addition to his fantastic music with Baroness (see Axl’s piece from this past Fall). In addition to album covers for his own band he’s done work for Torche, Pig Destroyer, Skeletonwitch and others; his style is instantly recognizable and has become sort of an “in” aesthetic in the metal world in the past year or so.

Crustcake recently conducted a fascinating in-depth interview with Baizley about his artwork, and it’s highly worth your time to check out. An excerpt:

How/when did you get your start in visual art? Did you take lessons?

I think it was a natural inclination of mine when I was young that both of my parents sort of fostered and encouraged in many ways. I took– never really anything too formal. When I was in, like, I’d say middle school I would, from time to time, go take lessons with a teacher and a number of students but I don’t think that was anything that had any lasting effects on it. It was primarily self-motivated up until college.

You started doing visual art before music?

Yeah, I would say I’ve definitely always– I’ve– when I was younger I favored visual arts– it was just more immediate and a little easier to grasp onto I didn’t start actually having and actively participated interest in music until I was like nine or ten. But, I mean if you look through my parents’ photo albums there’s art that pre-dates that by many years, you know?

To read the entire interview, head on over to Crustcake.

-VN